Marina Oswald Porter Biography

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Biography:

In 1961, she met and married Lee Harvey Oswald, an American who’d deserted to the Soviet Union. She came to America with him the next year, and was still wed to Oswald when he supposedly assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Afterwards, Marina wed again and became an American citizen. She was raised by her maternal grandmother during the Second World War, as her single mother needed to work. Following the war, Marina lived in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) with her mom and stepfather.

Marina’s mom died in 1957; at age 18, she went to reside with relatives in Minsk. There, in March 1961, she met Lee Harvey Oswald, an American who’d deserted to the Soviet Union. Both wed on April 30, 1961. Shortly following the marriage, Oswald talked to the U.S. embassy about returning to the United States with his new wife. After that year, the little family was able to depart the Soviet Union. They ended up in Texas, where Marina needed to deal with a dearth of resources Oswald never held a job for long as well as his furies and violence toward her. Saying he wished to keep practicing Russian, he also discouraged Marina from learning English.

A pregnant Marina decided to reside having a buddy, Ruth Paine, in Irving, Texas, while Oswald looked for work. Even when he got work in the Texas Book Depository, he remained in Dallas throughout the week, typically seeing Irving on weekends. Oswald who’d been seen at work with a rifle was arrested shortly later.

Marina entombed her husband, then needed to confront official question. But although Oswald had seen Marina the day prior to the assassination, and had kept his rifle in Paine’s garage, she had not been implicated in the offense. Following the assassination, Marina and her daughters were helped by contributions of about $60,000. In 1965, she married Kenneth Porter; with Porter, she had a third kid, Mark.

Since wedding Porter, Marina has lived in the Dallas suburbs, generally preventing the limelight. She did collaborate on a novel about her life with Oswald, Marina and Lee (1977). And though she told the Warren Commission that she considered Oswald had killed the president, Marina after shown that she’d altered her mind and thought her husband was set up. Marina was reluctant to give interviews tied to the 50th anniversary of the assassination. Nevertheless, she’d Oswald’s wedding ring auctioned off, plus a note including the line: “only at that time of my life I do not wish to have Lee’s ring in my possession because symbolicly [sic] I need to let go of my past that’s joining with November 22, 1963.”